Distraught child in street where woman's body found

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An intellectually disabled boy was seen crying outside a south-Dunedin home where a woman was found dead yesterday, neighbours say.

The boy came outside in his pyjamas, "hysterical and upset" and alerted neighbours, the Otago Daily Times reported.

"He came out in his pyjamas and was upset and pointing to the house,'' a neighbour told the ODT.

He was led away by family members after emergency services arrived, the neighbour said.

The boy was understood to be the son of the dead woman, who was aged in her early 40s.

Police said no one was being sought in relation to the woman's death.

"At this stage the death is being treated as unexplained and the dwelling secured while investigators conduct inquiries into the circumstances," police said.

An autopsy will be carried out today on the woman's body.

Police were called to the house in Burnett St, Caversham about noon and Senior Sergeant Brian Benn said it appeared the body had been there for some time.

A witness saw a dog that had been in a car outside the house being taken away in a Dunedin City Council animal control van about 2.30pm, but it was brought back a short while later and handed to some people who had been waiting in a car. A neighbour said the woman owned the dog.

Those people along with a few others and the dog had remained in a group on the footpath across the road from the house.

The neighbour said the dead woman moved into the house about three or four months ago and seemed a quiet person who kept to herself.